


beaming up frozen corpses

by Skyuni123



Series: 17 (should have been 25 but i messed up) Days of a Self-Flagellating Christmas [7]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: (Ish) - Freeform, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Bones is So Done, Caring Bones, Caves, Cold Weather, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Medical Procedures, POV Bones, Winter, whoops this was supposed to be a drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 03:29:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12950346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyuni123/pseuds/Skyuni123
Summary: Brokering a trade deal with a bunch of villagers is one thing.Saving said villagers from the once-in-a-lifetime blizzard engulfing their planet is quite another.Getting lost in said blizzard after rescuing said villagers is just cruel, cruel irony, and Bones has had quite enough of that, thank you.He and Jim Kirk, lost in a blizzard, with the sun about to go down.(snuggling ensues)





	beaming up frozen corpses

**Author's Note:**

> prompt was 'blizzard'

Brokering a trade deal with a bunch of villagers is one thing.

Saving said villagers from the once-in-a-lifetime blizzard engulfing their planet is quite another.

Getting lost in said blizzard after rescuing said villagers is just cruel, cruel irony, and Bones has had quite enough of that, thank you. 

 

He and Jim Kirk, lost in a blizzard, with the sun about to go down.

 

Great.

Just great.

 

The cold air rips past them,  _ through  _ them, and visibility is at an all time low. He can hardly feel his fingers in the wind. 

He grabs onto Jim even tighter, because in this weather, if one of them goes missing, they’re never getting out of here alive. Jim’s coat is thin, too thin, and not substantial enough. They need to get out of here.

Jim reaches out and grabs onto his jacket collar and yells, over the howl of the wind, “Bones. Cave!” and points.

 

If he squints he can just see it but it’s the only option they’ve got.

 

He half stumbles, half drags Jim towards the cave entrance and they fall inside, scrambling as far back as they can to get out of the wind. The freezing sleet doesn’t make it far past the entrance but it’s still far from warm. The cave is lit with gently glowing fungus, and barely fits the two of them sitting down.

 

“I’m- I’m gonna call up to the Enterprise. Get them to beam us out of here.” Jim says, fiddling within his coat for the long-range comm they’d taken when they’d beamed down. His hands shake within their gloves and he can’t seem to get his buttons undone.

 

Too cold. Circulatory problems. If they were warmer - 

 

No time. “I’ll do it.” He says, gruffly, ignoring the numbness creeping up in his own fingertips. He scrambles over to Jim, breath misting in the freezing air and fiddles with his buttons. It’s no easy task, but he manages to get the coat open and reach in when Jim says, “buy me a drink first.” and grins lazily, gaze wavering on his face. 

 

Bad motion tracking. Not a good sign.

 

“Shut up, Jim.” Bones says, withdrawing his hand with the communicator clutched in it. “Call the Enterprise. Come on.” He thrusts the communicator at Jim and starts glancing around the cave for something to block out the worst of the wind.    


There isn’t much, aside from a few loose rocks, which he places around the cave entrance. They don’t really help but it’s better than nothing.

Got to stay warm. Got to be warm. 

 

Dependent on the temperature, hypothermia can set in in as fast at fifteen minutes and can kill in 45. They need to stay warm.

 

“What do you mean you can’t beam us - Yes, I  _ know  _ about the storm, I’m in the middle of the damn thing! You can’t get a lock- Fuck. Look. Okay. That’s fine. Bones and I will be fine. Kirk out.”

“Not good?” Bones asks, tossing some bits of wood in the general direction of the entrance of the cave. 

“Can’t beam us back.” Jim replies, hands shaking as he tries to fit the communicator back into his jacket. “Storm’s too full of - ...look, Sulu said something but I’m really not here right now and it doesn’t exactly matter... They can’t beam us up until it clears.”

“Right.” Well. This complicates things. 

 

He hates the outside. Why does he come outside? It’s cold and damp and occasionally the stuff of nightmares. “Do you have any wood on your side? We need to make a fire.”

“A combustion fire?” Kirk slurs, blatantly ignoring his shaking hands, and throws some pieces of wood in his general direction. “How very 21st century of you, Bones.”

Bones adds the pieces of wood to the fire pile and manages to light it. “If you want to die of frostbite you can always keep complaining.” 

“Rude.” Jim garbles. “Why am I... so... s-sleepy, Bones?”

“That’d be the hypothermia.” He replies, gruffly, wishing he had an appropriate hypo on hand. The adrenaline could work in a pinch, but he doesn’t want to waste it unless he absolutely has to. Blame him for not packing the right equipment. He’d not exactly expected a planet known for its ‘mild weather and beautiful views’ to need his winter kit.

 

Once-in-a-lifetime blizzard, indeed.

 

He look over and sees Jim’s eyes drifting shut. “Hey, Jim! Come on. Don’t give me that. Wake up.” 

Nothing. Shit. He puts his ear to Jim’s chest, can barely feel his breath against his cheek. Heart still beating, but only just. “Kid, come on.” He slaps Jim across the face and the younger man wakes, but only barely. 

“Wh- Bones?” Even in his convalescence, there’s something wounded in those baby blue eyes.

“I’m pretty sure you have hypothermia.” Jim’s eyes drift shut again and Bones shakes him. “No. Sit up. We need to get you warm.”

“It- fine, Bon-. Jus’ lemme sleep.”

“No.” He drags Jim upwards to a sitting position. “No sleeping. Sleeping’s a bad idea, okay?”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.” 

 

Jim’s face is cool to the touch and his breathing is shallow. This isn’t good. He doesn’t know  _ how cold  _ the weather gets on this planet, but it’s too cold for his friend. Bones shucks off his outer layer - a long jacket he’d managed to grab before the worst of the weather had really hit, and drapes it over Jim, tucking it in around him.

 

The cool air  _ bites,  _ but that’s not his priority right now.

 

He’s treated hypothermia before - because of course he has, and he’s even treated it in Jim before as well. But that was in a fully-stocked medbay, not a tiny cave in the middle of nowhere.

 

_ At least,  _ he thinks with some relief,  _ the fire is doing something to warm the cave up.  _

Warm drinks, slow but steady heat, there’s not much he can do from here- wait. 

Jim had sampled several of the beverages presented by the locals and had been gifted one of their ornate antique mug as a gesture of thanks. He’d still have it somewhere…

He moves his coat aside for a moment, brushes his fingers over Jim’s lackluster one and finds the mug haphazardly jammed in one coat pocket. Seems like metal. It probably wouldn’t melt...

 

“Bon-” Jim slurs, as Bones make his way towards the cave entrance, “What- you doin’?”

“Saving your life.” He replies, and shoves the arm holding the mug out into the freezing storm.

 

He’s buffeted by the wind almost immediately and has to brace himself against the wall for support. All he needs is a mugful…

The wind is biting, sharp and painful like it’s got a personal vendetta against him.  _ It probably does,  _ Bones thinks giddily, as he brings the the mug back into the warmth, full with a slush of snow.  _ Cold. Too cold. _

 

He places it by the side of the fire and tries to warm himself up at the same time.  _ He’s shivering,  _ he notices with a detached sort of interest. Shivering is good. When the shivering stops that’s bad.

 

Cold.

_ Still cold.  _

 

“Bones?”

“Yeah?” Jim’s still awake. That’s something at least.

“Wh’ we in a cave?”

Confusion. Memory loss. Other symptoms of hypothermia. He explains as patiently as he can, “You found us a cave, remember? We were in a blizzard and now we’re not. We have to get you warm.”

 

All that matters is that Jim stays awake. Awake means  _ alive.  _

 

The water’s steaming now. He dips his finger in. It’s lukewarm, which is what he wants. Anything too hot could shock his system and that’d be a killer down here. Cardiac arrest is treatable in the medbay or with a full kit. Right now? Not so much.

He’s got a couple of sachets of restorative powder in his barebones kit, which he shakes into the water. They’ll not do much, but something is better than nothing. “Want to drink something for me, Jim?”

“Do I hav’ to?” Jim slurs, twisting his head away from the mug that Bones is holding out.

“Yes. It’s in the new mug you got. You like this mug, don’t you?” It almost feels silly treating Jim like this, but he’s confused. Bones isn’t sure that anything wordier would help.

“I do.” Jim reconsiders almost immediately, reaches his hand out for the mug and misses by a mile.

“Here.” Instead of handing it over, Bones helps him bring it to his lips. He’s sure that the younger man will drop it if he doesn’t help.

Jim takes a sip and winces at the taste. “No.”

“Yes. All of it. Come on, Jimmy.” 

“Have to?”

“Yes.” Bones says, even more firmly. He’s unsurprised that Jim’s dislike of medication extends even to water, but too bad for him. He’s going to have to live with it. 

 

Sometimes he wonders how he gets along so well with Jim, how they manage to get along despite serious personal differences and how they work together like a well-oiled machine at the best of times. 

 

Friendships.

 

He’s sure there’s an old Southern proverb about them, but he’s not exactly got time to think of it right now. “Come  _ on _ , Jimmy. Stop being an infant.”

Jim finishes it all and shoots Bones a baleful look before dropping the mug to the ground. “Sleep now?”

“No. No sleeping.”

“Why not?”

 

_ ‘Because you might die’ _ is probably a little harsh, but Bones says it anyway.

Jim blinks lazily at him. “Okay, Bones… you’re th’ boss.”

 

No argument? That’s a new one. He picks up the mug, fingers fumbling over it as he does - too cold,  _ too cold  _ \- and puts it by the fire.

 

He checks Jim’s pulse by placing two fingers on his wrist. Antiquated, but it’ll do.  _ Thready. Better than it was but nowhere near stable.  _ Dammit. Guess there’s nothing else to be done. 

He turns away, stokes up the fire. It’s starting to warm up in the cave but it’s certainly nowhere near warm enough to get them through the night without serious harm. “How opposed are you to sharing body heat?”

 

Jim snorts weakly. “You askin’... me t’  _ spoon _ , Bones?”

 

He’s going to personally thank the 21st century for  _ that  _ one. “Don’t be a child. I’m cold, you’re cold, if we share body heat there’s less of a chance of the Enterprise beaming up frozen corpses tomorrow morning.”

“Didn’t… say.. I was complainin’.”

Bones rolls his eyes, secretly rather pleased. “Keep it in your pants, Jim. You can flirt with me later.”

“That a promis’?”

 

He shuffles towards the other man - which isn’t too hard because the cave is only a tiny bit bigger than the pair of them stretched out - and says, dryly, “Shut up, imbicile, and let me get warm.” He moves in closer, digs underneath the bulk of the coat, and throws an arm over Jim. 

“Love ya too, Bones.” Jim snarks into into his shoulder.

 

It is surprisingly unweird spooning with his best friend. Then again, he  _ is  _ Jim’s doctor. He’s seen every inch of the man and been around him during some of his lowest moments. (The time with the STD and the glowing green pustules…  _ Especially  _ the time with the STD and the glowing green pustules.)

 

He works a hand underneath Jim’s own coat to rest on his stomach without even realising he’s doing it. Must be the cold, the hysteria, the feel of bringing someone back from the brink. 

Jim shivers.

(Bones realises that his hands are probably fairly cold and therefore not helping the situation. No other reason.)

 

“If that hand… moves any lower… we’re goin’ to have to have a… serious talk ‘bout bound’ries.” Jim mutters into his hair.   


He is resolutely not going to go down that road. Not right now. Not while Jim’s so out of it. “Keep it in your pants, Jim, I’m cold.” 

“Mmmm, your loss.”

 

Now is  _ not  _ the time.

 

They spend some time talking, listen to the the blizzard outside rise and fall, and watch the fire burn down. Bones can see the grey beginnings of a sunrise outside when he realises that Jim’s heart rate is back to normal. Strong and steady. Good.

 

“Can you feel your extremities?” 

“Yeah.” Jim replies, after testing them.

“You can go to sleep now. You probably won’t die.”

“Thanks for the medical expertise, Doctor McCoy. Good to know I’m back from the brink of death.” 

“Stop whining, you were barely dead.” He moves to get up, to pack their things and get ready to go.

 

Jim whines quietly.

 

Bones glares at him. If the kid’s got an injury that he’s not told him about, he’s going to -“What is it?”

“Stay.” 

The thought is appealing, but he shakes it off. “That’s probably not the best idea.”

“For fuck’s sake, Bones, you’ve been up all night. Relax.” 

“Well if you wouldn’t keep nearly dying on me then perhaps I’d actually sleep through a night.” His eyes are heavy and moving is really beginning to take far too much effort…

“Yes, yes, Bones, you’re amazing and no-one on the Enterprise appreciates your level of genius.” Jim placates, and runs his fingers through Bones’ hair. 

 

It feels so good and Bones could just sink into the warmth, feel the pulling and tugging on his scalp and just drift away…

 

-

 

Needless to say, the transporter room crew back on the Enterprise get a  _ bit  _ of a shock when they beam aboard. 

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up at the [ tumbs ](http://villainousfilmmaker.tumblr.com)


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